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Bag yourself a better interest rate

Two-chord specialists Dire Straits sang about getting ‘money for nothing’. They could have been economists, as more and more banks are doing just that. They take our money and give us sweet FA in return.

More than half of all current accounts don’t pay interest to their customers. Instead they squirrel your cash away and invest it in the stock market.

After the battering they’ve taken over the last couple of years, you’d think banks might be willing to try harder in order to win back our trust. Perhaps this is on their list of priorities, but it’s definitely well below the lining of their pockets with the returns they get from our dosh.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when major banks like Barclays, HSBC and Santander act like they don’t give a damn about their loyal customers by paying no, or next to no, interest on some accounts.

But the dagger goes deeper. Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest have recently stopped paying interest. We bail them out, they shaft us. Gordon Gekko would be proud.

Beat the banks at their own game

Needless to say, Which? thinks this situation is appalling. We’ve noted that fee-paying accounts are on the rise, meaning that more people will be in the position of handing banks a nice little safety net they’re clearly happy to take.

So, rather than fund their malaise and greed, why not kick back? Here are some ways to get started:

There are some providers who are still on our side, which you can find out about on Which? Money.

A) youcan’t spell “chord” and B) you invented a really stupid figure of speech calling Dire Straits two chord specialists just because they had a track called “Money for Nothing”! The most common derogatory comment about a band is to call it a three chord specialists and I don’t really think Dire Straits is one of those. I know it doesn’t really matter in the context but it could make your readers winder where else you’re being sloppy?

You can try switching accounts, but choice of interest bearing current accounts is disappearing rapidly. I have a cahoot current account, the standard of service of which is in freefall since Santander took over and I have been looking elsewhere. This account is unavailable to new customers and I suddenly realised how good the interest rate is by comparison!